Automatic railway-car door



WITNESSES W. N. McCLE LLAN. AUTOMATIC RAILWAY'CAR DOOR.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 12, 1919.

Patented Mar. 9, 1920.

3 SHETSSHEET l.

Ila,

IMVENTOR 24mm Y ATTORNEYS W. N. MCCLELLAN.

AUTOMATIC'RAILWAY CAR DOOR.

APPLICATION HLED JULY I2, 1919- Patented Mar. 9, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

ATTORNEYS W. N. McCLELLAN.

7 AUTOMATIC RAILWAY CAR DOOR. APPLICATION FILED JULY 123 1919. 1,333,430.

WI T #5885 8 HJTAUM WALTER N MCCIJELLAN, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

AUTOMATIC RAILWAY-CAR DOOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 9, 1920.

Application filed July 12, 1919. Serial No. 310,292.

To all whom 2t may concern Be it known that I, WALTER N. MoCLEL- LAN, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York, borough of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and Im roved Automatic Railway-Car Door, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to railway construction and has particular reference to the automatic operation of side doors for railway cars such as are commonly used on subways and elevated lines as well as surface cars operating along platforms on or about the same level as the car floors.

Among the objects of the invention is to provide means acting automatically between the station platform or the mechanism beneath the platform and the car mechanism to cause the doors to open. automaticallycoincidentally with the stopping of the car at the station.

Another object of the invention is to provide means under the control of the station agent or guard to prevent the motorman from shutting the doors and starting the car prematurely.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a novel safety guard cooperating with the doors to bridge over the gap between the car platform and the station plat form and acting also to prevent any pasv senger or patron of the road either on or ofl of the car from occupying a position in which he might be injured as a result of the movement of any of the automatic devices.

With the foregoing and other objects in view the invention consists in the arrangement and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed, and while the inven tion is not restricted to the exact details of construction disclosed or suggested herein, still for the purpose of illustrating a practical embodiment thereofreference is had to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same parts in the several views, and in which- Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of a car showing end and intermediate doors on the distant side of the car, the direction of movement of the car being understood to be toward the left.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical longitudinal section of the front of the car, the section being on the line 22 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse sect-ion on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2 looking rearward.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2, but showing the front door held open, the view being on the line 4-4 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 is a vertical transverse section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a plan view of one of the safety fenders arranged preferably on both platforms on opposite sides of the door.

Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic plan view of a door showing guard rails carried thereby; and

Fig. 8 is a side elevation of a portion of the station mechanism for controlling the closing of the doors of a number of cars.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings I show at 10 a railway track along which are arranged any suitable number of ramps 11, each having a gradual rise terminating in a level or horizontal portion 11 for cooperation with a roller 12 constituting a shoe connected through a cushion 13 with a vertically movable plunger 14 carried by guides 15 beneath the front end of the car. Said'guides are shown in Fig. 3 as carried by a depending bracket 16 of any suitable rigid construction.

Within this bracket and preferably between the guides 15 is journaled'on a horizontal axis 17 an arm 18 of hell crank construction the opposite arm 19 of which is connected by a link 20 to the lower end of a door actuating lever 21 pivoted at 22 on one of the floor sills of the car. The floor 23 of the car or the car platform will be understood as being on the same level as the station platform 24., or approximately so. The upper end of the lever 21 has pin and slot connection at 25 With the rear edge of the door 26 whereby when the lever is swung around its pivot 22 the door will be opened or subsequently closed. The middle door 26 is actuated by the same kind of mechanism including a lever 21 and operated from the first lever by means of a rod connection 27. The rear door 26 being slidable in the opposite direction has its lever 21 reversed and the same is actuated by means of a rocker 28 journaled at 29 and having rod connections 30 to the levers 21 and 21. From this construction it follows that the doors are all opened simultaneously and positively by the lift of the roller 12 and plunger 14 when a ramp 11 is reached. The high end of the ramp registers with a movable ramp member 1'1 normally on the same level, but which by virtue of a bell crank 31 pivoted at 32 is adapted to be lowered by any authorized person at the station platform by the manipulation of the lever 33 connected to one or more rods or links 34. This movable ramp 11 will be of any suitable length to insure that the motorman will stop his car with the roller 12 resting thereon.

Pivoted beneath the door at 35 is a catch 36 the point of which is depressed by the door as it moves open, said point being adapted to enter a notch 37 near the front lower corner of the door and when the door is open (see Fig. 4) any suitable means may be provided to actuate the catch. To this end I show a flexible connection 38 with the end of the catch member remote from the point, said flexible connection leading over or around any suitable direction pulleys 39 mounted on a bracket 40 extending downward beneath the car platform. The bolt 41 is slidable through a. guide 42 attached to the opposite end of the connection 38 and tends to be lifted by a spring 43 located between the guide 42 and acollar 44 near the upper end of the bolt. Among the functions of this spring, therefore. is to tend to hold the point of the catch elevated in position to enter the notch 37 and so hold the door open. If desired a safety spring attachment 45 may be interposed at any desired point between the ends of the flexible connection 38.

After the movable ramp 1'1? is depressed or Withdrawn from the roller 12 to allow the doors to be closed, aiiy suitable means under the control of the motorman may be employed to close the doors preferably by motor means. To this end I provide for each door a compressed air motor 46 having a reciprocating piston 47 with a rod and link connection 48 with the lever 21. The door may be operated in either direction by means of compressed air admitted into the motor cylinder from a storage tank 49 located at any convenient point on the car,

and which may be operated in the other direction by a spring 50. As shown herein the spring acts in conjunction with the ramp mechanism to open the door and for closing the door the motormanfirst opens a trip valve 51 to admit-compressed air into the trip motor 52 through a branch pipe 53 which acts upward on the front end of the catch to withdraw the point of the. catch from the notch 37. Immediately thereafter the motorman will open the valve 54 in the main air line 55 to admit the power fluid into the main cylinder 46. This description will of course apply to the motors on all the doors, they all being connected to the same air line 55. Carried by the car on opposite sides of the bottom of each door and pivoted at 56 and 57 are inner and outer bridge members 58 and 59 respectively. The normal position of these bridge members when the car is running is as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 close to the door. A pair of links 60 are pivotally connected to these bridge members above their axes and extend downward to a point of connection 61 with the upper end of the bolt 41. Coincidentally therefore with the swinging of the catch .36 downward by direct contact therewith of the door the flexible connection 38 will draw downward upon the links 60' and throw the bridge members downward flush with the car and station platforms thereby serving several important functions: First, to substantially bridge the gap between the two platforms, and secondly to depress the inner and outer fenders 62 and 63 movable upward across the surface of the two platforms respectively. The upward movement of the fenders is effected by springs 64, the combined force of which and the spring 43 is not greater than that of the safety spring 45. When the door is shut and the bridge members are in normal elevated position the fenders are liftedtothe position shown in Fig. 3, and the position of the fenders is such as to prevent any occupant of either platform from standing so that his foot may be in danger of being injured by the swinging bridge member. Should. however, a person or object be caught between the bridge and the fender serious damage will be prevented by the spring 45. As shown in Fig. 6 the ends of each fender may be arranged at an angle or curved so as to more effectively guard the region of the bridges.

Each door is preferably provided with inner and outer guard rails 65 bowed as indicated in Fig. 7 and serving to gently but positively force any person away from the door far enough so as not to be endangered either by the door or any of the parts movable adjacent thereto.

1 claim:

1. The combination with a railway car and a plurality of sliding doors carried thereby, of means to automatically open all of the doors simultaneously when the car reaches a predetermined point along the railway, said opening means comprising a ramp located along the track, a. shoe carried by the car and movable by contact with the ramp in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the car, lever and link connections between the shoe andall of the doors. and means to lock the doors open.

2. The combination with a railway car and a sliding door carried thereby, of means to automatically open the door when the car reaches a certain point along the trackway, means to lock the door open, and.

means manually controlled from a distance to release the door locking means.

3. The combination with a railway car and a door carried thereby, means to automatically open the door, a member actuated by the door during its opening movement and serving to lock the door open, and

therewith during the opening of the door,

bridging means serving to close the gap between the car platform and the station platform, and connections between said pivoted locking member and the bridge means whereby the bridge means is moved into bridging position automatically and simul-' taneously with the opening of the door.

5. The combination with a railway car having a sliding door and a platform adjacent thereto and means to automatically open the door, of a member pivoted beneath the platform and! actuated by the lower edge of the door while being opened, said lower edge of the door being provided with a notch into which said member ongages to lock the door open, and means controllable from a distance from the door" to rlelease said member to permit the door to c ose.

6. The combination of a. railway car having a door and a platform adjacent thereto, means to automatically open the door, a lever pivoted beneath the platform and engageab le by the door in open position to lock the door open, a bridge member carried by the platform and movable toward and from the door, and flexible and resilient connections between said lever and the bridge member to cause the bridge member to be moved into horizontal position automatically during the opening of the door.

'7. In car door mechanism, the combination with a sliding door, bridge members arranged normally in vertical position on opposite sides of the door, means to open the door and hold it open, and connections between the door holding means and the bridge members to cause the bridge members to be swung downward in a horizontal position automatically and simultaneously with the opening of the door.

8. In car door mechanism, the combination of a door, means to slide it open and closed, and guard means adjacent to the door serving to gently but positively force passengers away from the door while it is moving.

9. In car door mechanism, the combination of a door, means to slide the door open and closed, movable bridge members adjacent to the door, means to spring the bridgemem bers down into horizontal position-awhile the door is being opened, and

fender means to prevent injury to passengers either inside or outside of the door when said bridge members are being moved.

WALTER N. McCLELLAN. 

